


Movie Night

by spacedaydreamer



Category: Zero Escape (Video Games), Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma - Fandom
Genre: Carlos goes over to junpei's for a movie night, Gen, but junpei doesn't mention that when he watches movies it's like a 24-hour marathon or bust, part of the left clone carlos au; carlos learning more about everyday normal life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-05
Updated: 2017-01-05
Packaged: 2018-09-15 01:16:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9212951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacedaydreamer/pseuds/spacedaydreamer
Summary: Junpei discovers that Carlos has never seen a movie before, and that's something he absolutely must rectify. (Left clone Carlos AU)





	

“Wait, are you _serious_? Carlos, you _have_ to be kidding me.”

“Junpei, I’m completely serious. Why would I lie about this?”

“But- you’ve _seriously_ never seen a movie before?”

“I told you, anything from the outside was considered ‘impure’- movies were no different. Heck, I hadn’t even sat down to watch a TV show until last week, Maria introduced me to ‘reality TV’.”

“Urgh… Ok, It looks like I don’t have a choice. This weekend, you’re coming over to my place. And you’re not leaving until you’ve been educated.”

It was this conversation that led to Carlos showing up at Junpei and Akane’s apartment at 2pm on a Saturday afternoon, holding a couple bags of popcorn (the essential movie snack, according to Maria) and a two liter bottle of iced tea. It took him a second to even knock on the door, but within moments Akane was there, opening the door for him.

“Oh, great! Junpei’s already on the couch; he’s all ready for you.”

Carlos nodded and was about to head in, but he felt Akane’s hand on his shoulder. He turned to look at her, and her face was dark and serious.

“Carlos, if you need an out, just text me. I’m going over to Diana’s with Maria, but we’ll come rescue you if you need it.”

“H-huh? Akane, are movies _dangerous_ or something?”

She shook her head gravely, before giving him that same, chilling expression.

“It’s not the movies, Carlos. It’s Junpei.”

“What?”

But before he could get a response, Akane was back to her usual cheerful self. She said a quick goodbye, pushing Carlos in the direction of the couch, before quickly darting out and locking the door.

_‘Okay, that was weird…’_

Carlos wanted to spend more time thinking about just how weird it really was, but he could hear Junpei calling to him. Really, what could be so bad about a movie that he’d need to get rescued? Hell, he’d already survived the decision game- nothing could be as bad as that, right?

_Right?_

His certainty was immediately put to the test when he actually _saw_ Junpei, sitting in complete focus on the floor with a gigantic fan of DVD boxes completely surrounding him. It was hard to even navigate to the couch, let alone sit down and get comfortable. Junpei didn’t even seem to notice the difficulty Carlos was having, as he continued to look back and forth between a group of movies that appeared to have very similar covers.

“Uh… Junpei? Are you ready?”

“…I’m just in thought. Should we start with live action, or animated…”

Carlos shrugged- he really didn’t mind either way.

“Well, uh… why not animated? Sounds fun.”

Junpei nodded firmly, pushing a handful of the cases away from him, and pulling others towards him. He spent about five minutes debating something inside his mind, until he finally held one case up- clearly, it was the winner of his internal debate.

“Alright then, we’re going to watch _Snow White_. It’s often named the first feature length animated film, but that’s not actually true- the very first was made in 1917, called _El Apóstol_. However, the film itself has been lost…” Junpei looked incredibly upset at that fact, but continued he speech. “The director, Quirino Cristiani, made two other films before _Snow White_ as well, but they were also lost. The oldest surviving animated film is called _Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed_ , but seeing as it’s in German, we can watch it another time. I figure for your first movie we should keep it simple, and _Snow White_ is straightforward as it gets in terms of fairy tales.”

Carlos could only blink at the sudden information dump- where had Junpei been keeping all that knowledge? And why did he know it? He was suddenly getting the feeling he knew what Akane had been talking about… When Junpei had said he loved movies, he meant he _loved_ movies.

“Oh, but that’s enough talk. Time to do what you came here to do, right Carlos?”

“Y-yeah, right.”

Carlos nodded, trying to ignore the speech Junpei had just so passionately made. This was just going to be a fun, relaxing experience, hanging out with a friend… or at least, he seriously hoped.

Once the movie was in, Junpei went dead silent. Carlos almost found himself staring at Junpei more than at the screen- it was clear Junpei had seen the movie many times before, and yet he was still completely drawn in by it. Carlos found much the same happening to himself- despite not knowing too much about the source fairy tale, or fairy tales at all, he was entranced by the story of _Snow White_. When she was lost in the woods, he was scared for her. when she was found by the dwarves, he was excited for her new home! And when she bit the poisoned apple, falling into a cursed sleep, Carlos couldn’t help it: he cried. He even cried when true love’s kiss woke her up; It was just too beautiful. Junpei had hardly moved the entire time, but as soon as the credits hit, he spun around in place and stared at Carlos with an intensity the likes of which Carlos had never seen before. Even when Junpei had first found out he was working with _Delta_ he’d never seen such an intense stare.

“Well? What did you think?”

“Oh, I loved it! Such a cute story.”

“Good. Now, do you want to go through more of the Disney filmography, we can fast forward to Pixar or Dreamworks, or we could shift to live action. Your call, there’s plenty to go through on either side, and we haven’t even gotten into the genre divisions.”

“U-uh…. I guess, more of the Disney?”

Carlos didn’t know what Pixar or Dreamworks were, but he figured they must be other movie studios. Junpei didn’t seem to realize Carlos’s confusion, just nodding to himself and picking up three movies, much faster than he’d picked out _Snow White_.

“Okay, these are your picks this time. We’ve got _Fantasia_ \- this one’s more abstract, they’re animating to classical music so you’d get your animation and music history in one sitting. Then we’ve got _Beauty and the Beast_ \- arguably the best of the Disney Princess films, beloved by most fans. And finally there’s _The Lion King_ , the highest grossing animated film of all time until Disney’s own Frozen took the spot. Oh, and we can consider _Frozen_ later- when we get into CG, we’re going to start with _Toy Story_.”

“S-sure, um… well… why not Lion King, then?”

Junpei nodded in confirmation, clearly pleased with Carlos’s choice. He let out a breath he didn’t even realize he’d been holding in- this recreational film afternoon was shaping up to be quite stressful, and they were only one film in…

Things didn’t stop there for Carlos, however. After _The Lion King_ came a seemingly endless barrage of movies- all of them were excellent, most made him cry, but there was no end in sight. By the time he realized it was past midnight they were only halfway through the first _Lord of the Rings_ movie, and it was clear Junpei showed no signs of stopping. He almost texted Akane for help, to rescue him from movie night, but… despite the non-stop barrage of films, and the occasional five-minute speech from Junpei about movie facts or history, he found that he was having a lot of fun. He never could have imagined what sorts of stories these movies could hold, or how intense they could get. The first horror movie Junpei had put on, Carlos had almost had to leave the room he was so scared- instead, he’d jumped and grabbed onto Junpei’s arm, occasionally burying his face into the back of the couch when he was too scared to watch at all. By the time 6am rolled around they were both exhausted, but Junpei insisted they had time for one more.

“Okay Carlos, this last choice is important. This’ll be the last one, so be careful.” Junpei held up three movies, staring deep into Carlos’s eyes. “First, we’ve got _Toy Story 2_. Despite being a sequel, some people would say it’s even better than the first- and I’d agree with them. Next, there’s _Howl’s Moving Castle_ \- this one’s another Ghibli film, and one of my personal favourite movies. And finally… _Back to the Future_. I… I love this movie. So much. Oh, but don’t let my opinion sway you- if you want, we can have a separate movie night just for it and the sequels.”

Carlos laughed awkwardly at the suggestion, but thought long and hard. It was clear how much Junpei actually did love the movie just from how he was holding the box- Carlos figured it deserved his full attention.

“Well, I think we should save it for when I’m actually awake, then. We can meet up again another day.” Hopefully, not this month though. He’d need at least a month to recharge from the movie barrage. “So, how about _Toy Story 2_ then? I did love the first movie, so it’ll be interesting to see how it holds up.”

Junpei nodded with enthusiasm, and put the final movie in. Despite being far too tired to even be awake, Carlos found himself being sucked into the movie just like he had for every movie before this one, incapable of looking away yet again. Buzz and Woody were still some of his favorite characters he’d seen but now there was more- Jessie was great, and he found that he _loved_ Bullseye.

By the time the movie finished up, it was about 7:40- more than a day since Carlos had last been asleep. Despite how into the entire thing Junpei had been, the moment the credits were done, he’d completely passed out, dead to the world. Despite his best efforts, Carlos found that sleep was taking him as well, and he fell asleep on the couch, right next to Junpei.

It was a couple hours before Maria and Akane arrived to save Carlos, and they found the two boys asleep on the couch, Carlos having grabbed onto Junpei for a cuddle unconsciously. Neither girl had the heart to break up such a well-deserved rest, so they simply let them sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> So this is based on a headcanon of mine that Junpei is super into older movies and media, to a point where he's almost a walking encyclopedia of random movie facts. He could list off the entire animated Disney movie catalog and release dates, and you could convince him to watch any movie so long as you tell him it's significant to the art of flim.
> 
> If I ever watch back to the future then I'll make a sequel/second chapter for that marathon- I'm kinda convinced that Junpei was casual cosplaying Marty Mcfly when he was grabbed for 999, and was just praying none of the other nonary participants would recognize.
> 
> I feel like this AU Carlos would be super into the disney princess stuff, especially Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast. I'm not even sure why, I just feel like he'd really love those movies.


End file.
